Chap 3: The Decision
Hey, y'all. That's all I have to say.
Bulma yawned, exhausted. She was in Trunks's office, doing left-over paperwork for him ("Mom, I'll make it up to you, I swear!"). She yawned again, beginning to
nod off. She felt so stressed out with everything going on in her family... Vegeta was keeping something from her, Bra had been acting strangely ever since she'd
gotten home from the mall with Marron, her parents had run off again, and Trunks was running around doing God knows what.
'I wish my parents were here,' thought Bulma. Her parents had gone on a cruise in Majorca without telling anyone, but her mother had called her from the dock and
told her that they would be arriving home that weekend. She wished that she could just run off for awhile whenever she wanted to, too... but she had too much to
take care of for that type of thing.
'I wish that I could go somewhere far, far away... and forget all about work...' thought Bulma with a sigh.
She got up and stretched, yawning again. She walked around the large desk and over to another table at the other side of the office and poured herself some coffee.
She was about to take a sip when she noticed some pink lip-stick on the side of the glass. She sucked her teeth loudly. 'Trunks has GOT to stop bringing his little
'friends' in here.'
She got another mug and filled it to the brim with coffee. She made sure that there was plenty of sugar in it ('I think I need a sugar rush...') and walked back over to
the desk, sipping it and thinking.
Despite everything that was going on, Bulma had one serious thing on her mind: Vegeta. Since that morning, he'd been getting more and more upset. He seemed to
be anxious about something, and she wished that he'd tell her something. At least give her a hint.
And worst of all, whatever this was, it was really getting to him. He was looking older and older by the moment, and she even saw a few actual gray hairs. There
were lines below his eyes, and she even managed to hurt him, which she thought was impossible. All she'd done was jab him in the side playfully like she always had
done, but to her horror, Vegeta had groaned and began rubbing the sore spot on his ribs as he walked away, not saying a word.
He hadn't even eaten breakfast that morning, either. After "helping" her with the dishes and retreating, he was about to go out the door when she inquired him on
eating something.
For a few minutes, he'd just stared a her, then grabbed the sides of her face and gave her a long, passionate, searing kiss.
Then he left.
Bulma, bewildered and a bit dizzy, just stood rooted in the exact same spot for about ten minutes.
And he seemed to fear the night. She didn't know why, him being a night person and all, but she found him sitting on the roof, staring at the sun, as though he were
afraid of the fact that it would soon meet the horizon and disappear.
She decided that she would have to get him to tell her what was going on. Seeing him under so much stress was killing her, not to mention the fact that he seemed to
be completely helpless about it.
She sighed and returned to the paper work, though her mind wasn't far off from her mate. 'Vegeta, why won't you tell me...?'
Just as she was about to begin writing again, the door of the office burst open.
She didn't even look up at him, she was mad at him for playing hookie again.
"Mom, thank so much for doing this, I really appriciate it-" began Trunks, breathing heavily.
"You'd better, Trunks Briefs. I'm not doing this again. You have to learn to take responsibility for this job! You can't just go off doing whatever you want whenever
you want-"
"I know, mom, I'm really sorry, but I'll make it up to you..."
Bulma finally stopped writing to look up at him, her eyes full of anger and disappointment.
"Trunks, I don't want you to make it up to me, I want you to start taking this job seriously, you understand?" she asked.
Trunks nodded, looking downward. He could understand how she felt, this was the third time that week that he'd run off. He could tell that she was really upset with
him.
Bulma put the pen down and got up.
"Well, I finished all of the financial reports, all you have to do now is the progress report."
Trunks nodded and plopped down into the leather chair.
Bulma grabbed her coat and was about to walk out the door when she stopped.
She turned to Trunks and watched him as he bagan to write rapidly, his pen flying across the paper.
Trunks could feel her eyes on him and looked up at her, expecting her to say something.
When she continued to stare at him, he asked nervously, "Uh... did you want to tell me anything else, mom?"
She nodded. "Promise that you won't keep *serious* secrets from me, okay?"
At first, Trunks looked confused, but the pleading look in her eyes made him answer her.
"...I promise," he said after a moment.
She smiled happily and closed the door as she walked out of the room.
Trunks, completely bewildered by her sudden request, shook his head and went back to work.
**************************************************************************************
Bulma drove home in her air car, only slightly paying attention to the road ahead of her. 'As soon as I get home, he's telling me what's going on.'
The reason that she was so bent on trying to figure out what his problem was was because of the fact that he'd never seemed to be so helpless or upset before. 'It
has to do with that ki, it has to be. That's when he started acting weird.'
She arrived home, still pondering the situation. She looked up at the roof, a sound had caught her attention. She looked up and could see a pair of legs hanging over
the side of the roof. She recognized the black jeans and realized that Vegeta had been sitting up there since she'd left.
A look of sadness came over her features as she walked to the door and unlocked it, steping inside. She smelled something very good coming from the direction of
the kitchen. Well it wasn't Bra cooking, that was for sure.
Confused and suspicious, she walked cautiously to the kitchen door and peered inside.
"Mom? What are you doing here? I tohught that you were in Majorca," said Bulma when she saw the blonde woman standing and stirring the rice on the stove.
"Yes, but your father got into an argument with someone.." Mrs. Briefs "tsk-tsked" and shook her head. "So how were things while we were gone?"
"Alright... has Vegeta come down since I left?"
"Where did you go?" asked Mrs. Briefs, suddenly realizing that her daughter hadn't been home.
"I had to take over for Trunks," said Bulma exasperatedly.
"Oooohhhh," said Mrs. Briefs, suddenly looking slightly excited about something. "Okay."
Bulma blinked a few times, trying to figure out why her mother was suddenly happy about it.
"So did Vegeta come down?"
"Um... once," said Mrs. Briefs, looking thoughtful. "He asked your father if he knew where that old Scouter thingy was."
That caught Bulma's attention.
"What? Did he say what he needed it for?" she asked frantically. Now she knew that it *definately* had to do with the ki that had been lingering around two weeks
before.
"No," said Mrs. Briefs as shee continued to stir the rice. "But he really seemed to want to find it..."
Bulma sulked and walked slowly over to the table, getting more and more agrivated. Why was he doing this to her? She'd told him that he could tell her anything, but
he didn't seem to believe her.
"...Mom?" said Bulma quietly, unsure that she should ask her mother about it.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"...Have you ever felt that... that someone close was keeping a secret from you? A really serious one?" she asked quietly.
"Well yes," said Mrs. Briefs. "You."
Bulma laughed. "But this is different," she said, becoming serious again. "I think... I think that Vegeta's hiding something really big from me."
Mrs. Briefs turned around to face Bulma, looking confused. "Well have you tried asking him about it?" she asked.
"Well, I want to, but I... I dunno, I just feel that if he wanted me to know then he would've told me already. If he wants to keep it to himself... maybe I should
respect that..."
Mrs. Briefs snorted. "Yeah, right," she laughed. "Marriage is a two way thing - if something is affecting him this much, he should know to tell you about it, because
maybe it'll affect the whole family. If he doesn't love you or trust you enough to tell you about it, then he can just-"
Mrs. Briefs stopped when she realized that Bulma was staring at her, her eyes wide with shock.
"Uh... ::ahem:: What I ment to say, sweetie, is that you should talk it out with him-"
"Where the hell did *that* come from?" interrupted Bulma before she could stop herself.
"Oh, well... your father and I had an argument in Majorca... don't ask," she added.
Bulma laughed. "So... you think that I should make him tell me about it?"
"Well that's your decision, dear," said Mrs. Briefs as she checked on the chicken. "If you think that you should know about it, ask him. But if you feel that he has a
right to keep something to himself for once, then don't ask him. Let him deal with whatever it is himself."
"Wow, that was a lot of help," said Bulma sarcastically. "I want to know, but I can't keep prying into his buisness like this everytime I suspect something..."
"Well... I can't make the decision for you. That decision is ultimately between you and your conscience... so I'd say that you should think about it."
"Yeah... thanks, mom," said Bulma as she picked up her purse and headed up the stairs to her room.
'I just hope that Vegeta comes to me about this before I have to go to him...'
She opened the door to the bedroom, and turned on the light. She almost screamed when she saw the black-clothed firgure standing in front of the window, but
recognized the spiky hair and calmed down.
Not knowing how he would react to her being in the room, she walked quietly over to the bed and set her purse down, keeping an eye on him the whole time. Even
though Vegeta wasn't doing anything, Bulma was becomming more and more anxious. He was being eerily still; he didn't even appear to be blinking or breathing.
Deciding to take a chance, she walked up behind him slowly and silently, hoping that he wouldn't blow her head off.
She lifted a hand, hesitated, then put it on his shoulder gently.
"...Vegeta, are you alright?" she asked quietly.
Vegeta jumped when he heard Bulma's voice, he didn't even realize she was in the room.
"Oh, uh... I'm fine," he said before looking out the window again.
"Are you sure?" asked Bulma. "You've been acting pretty strange lately..."
"I'm sure," he said, his voice bordering a whisper.
Bulma sighed and walked over to the other side of the room, giving up hope that Vegeta would ever come out with it and tell her what was going on.
She cast one last hopeless look at him before entering the bathroom to take a quick shower before going to bed.
Vegeta looked down. He sighed and looked at his watch, wanting to cry when he saw what time it was.
'Eleven-fifty-nine...' he thought sadly. 'Time's up.'
So what's going to happen? Time is up! Will Clarice come to him to get an answer? Will she drag gim back? Will Bulma ever find out about what's going on? Will
Clarice really kill everyone like in Vegeta's nightmare?
Find out on the next episode of-
Dragon Ball Z: The Legends of Chaos
~Valerie G.
P.S. On the Informatory chapter thing, guess what! I only got TWO voters, people! TWO VOTERS!! Does anyone else care about what goes on in the story? If
you do, please vote! PLEASE! Here are the results:
(If I don't get anymore votes before the end of next week, I'm going to go along with these two and make my own decision about what happens on the half/half
ones!)
Question One: Should I drop the T/M thing:
Votes: Both votes are YES
Question Two: Should I put up more explainatory "chapters" like this to help people better understand the story?
Votes: One vote YES, one vote NO
Question Three: Should I put more Japanese in the story? *Remeber, I'll always translate it, especially if it's a long sentance.*
Votes: Both votes are YES
Question Four: Should the new characters be included in the story much?
Votes: I think both were YES...
Question Five: Now this is something that I wanna do, but some people may not like it that much: Do you think that I should put up the character theme songs from
the Sonic Adventure soundtrack? I'm telling you, this soundtrack kicks some serious ass... I'll put the lyrics up if people vote yes.
Votes: One vote YES, One vote NO
Question Six: Will someone *PLEASE* tell me how to put these files in HTML format? I've tried to, but the thing keeps showing these weird symbols and the order
of the words gets all screwed up... if u can help me, please e-mail me!
Votes: Neither knew how
Question Seven: Should I make the story as descriptive as it is or should I be more... general about it? I like to describe stuff a lot so that people can visualize what
I'm talking about better. It's easier for the reader that way, but If most people are annoyed by it then I'll stop.
Votes: Both votes were YES
So pleez keep voting! I need to know what to do, people!
~Valerie
Hey, y'all. That's all I have to say.
Bulma yawned, exhausted. She was in Trunks's office, doing left-over paperwork for him ("Mom, I'll make it up to you, I swear!"). She yawned again, beginning to
nod off. She felt so stressed out with everything going on in her family... Vegeta was keeping something from her, Bra had been acting strangely ever since she'd
gotten home from the mall with Marron, her parents had run off again, and Trunks was running around doing God knows what.
'I wish my parents were here,' thought Bulma. Her parents had gone on a cruise in Majorca without telling anyone, but her mother had called her from the dock and
told her that they would be arriving home that weekend. She wished that she could just run off for awhile whenever she wanted to, too... but she had too much to
take care of for that type of thing.
'I wish that I could go somewhere far, far away... and forget all about work...' thought Bulma with a sigh.
She got up and stretched, yawning again. She walked around the large desk and over to another table at the other side of the office and poured herself some coffee.
She was about to take a sip when she noticed some pink lip-stick on the side of the glass. She sucked her teeth loudly. 'Trunks has GOT to stop bringing his little
'friends' in here.'
She got another mug and filled it to the brim with coffee. She made sure that there was plenty of sugar in it ('I think I need a sugar rush...') and walked back over to
the desk, sipping it and thinking.
Despite everything that was going on, Bulma had one serious thing on her mind: Vegeta. Since that morning, he'd been getting more and more upset. He seemed to
be anxious about something, and she wished that he'd tell her something. At least give her a hint.
And worst of all, whatever this was, it was really getting to him. He was looking older and older by the moment, and she even saw a few actual gray hairs. There
were lines below his eyes, and she even managed to hurt him, which she thought was impossible. All she'd done was jab him in the side playfully like she always had
done, but to her horror, Vegeta had groaned and began rubbing the sore spot on his ribs as he walked away, not saying a word.
He hadn't even eaten breakfast that morning, either. After "helping" her with the dishes and retreating, he was about to go out the door when she inquired him on
eating something.
For a few minutes, he'd just stared a her, then grabbed the sides of her face and gave her a long, passionate, searing kiss.
Then he left.
Bulma, bewildered and a bit dizzy, just stood rooted in the exact same spot for about ten minutes.
And he seemed to fear the night. She didn't know why, him being a night person and all, but she found him sitting on the roof, staring at the sun, as though he were
afraid of the fact that it would soon meet the horizon and disappear.
She decided that she would have to get him to tell her what was going on. Seeing him under so much stress was killing her, not to mention the fact that he seemed to
be completely helpless about it.
She sighed and returned to the paper work, though her mind wasn't far off from her mate. 'Vegeta, why won't you tell me...?'
Just as she was about to begin writing again, the door of the office burst open.
She didn't even look up at him, she was mad at him for playing hookie again.
"Mom, thank so much for doing this, I really appriciate it-" began Trunks, breathing heavily.
"You'd better, Trunks Briefs. I'm not doing this again. You have to learn to take responsibility for this job! You can't just go off doing whatever you want whenever
you want-"
"I know, mom, I'm really sorry, but I'll make it up to you..."
Bulma finally stopped writing to look up at him, her eyes full of anger and disappointment.
"Trunks, I don't want you to make it up to me, I want you to start taking this job seriously, you understand?" she asked.
Trunks nodded, looking downward. He could understand how she felt, this was the third time that week that he'd run off. He could tell that she was really upset with
him.
Bulma put the pen down and got up.
"Well, I finished all of the financial reports, all you have to do now is the progress report."
Trunks nodded and plopped down into the leather chair.
Bulma grabbed her coat and was about to walk out the door when she stopped.
She turned to Trunks and watched him as he bagan to write rapidly, his pen flying across the paper.
Trunks could feel her eyes on him and looked up at her, expecting her to say something.
When she continued to stare at him, he asked nervously, "Uh... did you want to tell me anything else, mom?"
She nodded. "Promise that you won't keep *serious* secrets from me, okay?"
At first, Trunks looked confused, but the pleading look in her eyes made him answer her.
"...I promise," he said after a moment.
She smiled happily and closed the door as she walked out of the room.
Trunks, completely bewildered by her sudden request, shook his head and went back to work.
**************************************************************************************
Bulma drove home in her air car, only slightly paying attention to the road ahead of her. 'As soon as I get home, he's telling me what's going on.'
The reason that she was so bent on trying to figure out what his problem was was because of the fact that he'd never seemed to be so helpless or upset before. 'It
has to do with that ki, it has to be. That's when he started acting weird.'
She arrived home, still pondering the situation. She looked up at the roof, a sound had caught her attention. She looked up and could see a pair of legs hanging over
the side of the roof. She recognized the black jeans and realized that Vegeta had been sitting up there since she'd left.
A look of sadness came over her features as she walked to the door and unlocked it, steping inside. She smelled something very good coming from the direction of
the kitchen. Well it wasn't Bra cooking, that was for sure.
Confused and suspicious, she walked cautiously to the kitchen door and peered inside.
"Mom? What are you doing here? I tohught that you were in Majorca," said Bulma when she saw the blonde woman standing and stirring the rice on the stove.
"Yes, but your father got into an argument with someone.." Mrs. Briefs "tsk-tsked" and shook her head. "So how were things while we were gone?"
"Alright... has Vegeta come down since I left?"
"Where did you go?" asked Mrs. Briefs, suddenly realizing that her daughter hadn't been home.
"I had to take over for Trunks," said Bulma exasperatedly.
"Oooohhhh," said Mrs. Briefs, suddenly looking slightly excited about something. "Okay."
Bulma blinked a few times, trying to figure out why her mother was suddenly happy about it.
"So did Vegeta come down?"
"Um... once," said Mrs. Briefs, looking thoughtful. "He asked your father if he knew where that old Scouter thingy was."
That caught Bulma's attention.
"What? Did he say what he needed it for?" she asked frantically. Now she knew that it *definately* had to do with the ki that had been lingering around two weeks
before.
"No," said Mrs. Briefs as shee continued to stir the rice. "But he really seemed to want to find it..."
Bulma sulked and walked slowly over to the table, getting more and more agrivated. Why was he doing this to her? She'd told him that he could tell her anything, but
he didn't seem to believe her.
"...Mom?" said Bulma quietly, unsure that she should ask her mother about it.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"...Have you ever felt that... that someone close was keeping a secret from you? A really serious one?" she asked quietly.
"Well yes," said Mrs. Briefs. "You."
Bulma laughed. "But this is different," she said, becoming serious again. "I think... I think that Vegeta's hiding something really big from me."
Mrs. Briefs turned around to face Bulma, looking confused. "Well have you tried asking him about it?" she asked.
"Well, I want to, but I... I dunno, I just feel that if he wanted me to know then he would've told me already. If he wants to keep it to himself... maybe I should
respect that..."
Mrs. Briefs snorted. "Yeah, right," she laughed. "Marriage is a two way thing - if something is affecting him this much, he should know to tell you about it, because
maybe it'll affect the whole family. If he doesn't love you or trust you enough to tell you about it, then he can just-"
Mrs. Briefs stopped when she realized that Bulma was staring at her, her eyes wide with shock.
"Uh... ::ahem:: What I ment to say, sweetie, is that you should talk it out with him-"
"Where the hell did *that* come from?" interrupted Bulma before she could stop herself.
"Oh, well... your father and I had an argument in Majorca... don't ask," she added.
Bulma laughed. "So... you think that I should make him tell me about it?"
"Well that's your decision, dear," said Mrs. Briefs as she checked on the chicken. "If you think that you should know about it, ask him. But if you feel that he has a
right to keep something to himself for once, then don't ask him. Let him deal with whatever it is himself."
"Wow, that was a lot of help," said Bulma sarcastically. "I want to know, but I can't keep prying into his buisness like this everytime I suspect something..."
"Well... I can't make the decision for you. That decision is ultimately between you and your conscience... so I'd say that you should think about it."
"Yeah... thanks, mom," said Bulma as she picked up her purse and headed up the stairs to her room.
'I just hope that Vegeta comes to me about this before I have to go to him...'
She opened the door to the bedroom, and turned on the light. She almost screamed when she saw the black-clothed firgure standing in front of the window, but
recognized the spiky hair and calmed down.
Not knowing how he would react to her being in the room, she walked quietly over to the bed and set her purse down, keeping an eye on him the whole time. Even
though Vegeta wasn't doing anything, Bulma was becomming more and more anxious. He was being eerily still; he didn't even appear to be blinking or breathing.
Deciding to take a chance, she walked up behind him slowly and silently, hoping that he wouldn't blow her head off.
She lifted a hand, hesitated, then put it on his shoulder gently.
"...Vegeta, are you alright?" she asked quietly.
Vegeta jumped when he heard Bulma's voice, he didn't even realize she was in the room.
"Oh, uh... I'm fine," he said before looking out the window again.
"Are you sure?" asked Bulma. "You've been acting pretty strange lately..."
"I'm sure," he said, his voice bordering a whisper.
Bulma sighed and walked over to the other side of the room, giving up hope that Vegeta would ever come out with it and tell her what was going on.
She cast one last hopeless look at him before entering the bathroom to take a quick shower before going to bed.
Vegeta looked down. He sighed and looked at his watch, wanting to cry when he saw what time it was.
'Eleven-fifty-nine...' he thought sadly. 'Time's up.'
So what's going to happen? Time is up! Will Clarice come to him to get an answer? Will she drag gim back? Will Bulma ever find out about what's going on? Will
Clarice really kill everyone like in Vegeta's nightmare?
Find out on the next episode of-
Dragon Ball Z: The Legends of Chaos
~Valerie G.
P.S. On the Informatory chapter thing, guess what! I only got TWO voters, people! TWO VOTERS!! Does anyone else care about what goes on in the story? If
you do, please vote! PLEASE! Here are the results:
(If I don't get anymore votes before the end of next week, I'm going to go along with these two and make my own decision about what happens on the half/half
ones!)
Question One: Should I drop the T/M thing:
Votes: Both votes are YES
Question Two: Should I put up more explainatory "chapters" like this to help people better understand the story?
Votes: One vote YES, one vote NO
Question Three: Should I put more Japanese in the story? *Remeber, I'll always translate it, especially if it's a long sentance.*
Votes: Both votes are YES
Question Four: Should the new characters be included in the story much?
Votes: I think both were YES...
Question Five: Now this is something that I wanna do, but some people may not like it that much: Do you think that I should put up the character theme songs from
the Sonic Adventure soundtrack? I'm telling you, this soundtrack kicks some serious ass... I'll put the lyrics up if people vote yes.
Votes: One vote YES, One vote NO
Question Six: Will someone *PLEASE* tell me how to put these files in HTML format? I've tried to, but the thing keeps showing these weird symbols and the order
of the words gets all screwed up... if u can help me, please e-mail me!
Votes: Neither knew how
Question Seven: Should I make the story as descriptive as it is or should I be more... general about it? I like to describe stuff a lot so that people can visualize what
I'm talking about better. It's easier for the reader that way, but If most people are annoyed by it then I'll stop.
Votes: Both votes were YES
So pleez keep voting! I need to know what to do, people!
~Valerie